Keywords - They Can Help #Authors SEO by Kayelle Allen @KayelleAllen #tips #marketing

Good Keywords for Author SEO

Authors need good keywords for blog posts, books, marketing, even writing newsletters. SEO, which means Search Engine Optimization, is all about writing and content searchable by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. After all, if no one can find you, what good will it do to write material anyway? To be found, authors need good keywords and good SEO.

Included in this post is a shot of the Yoast SEO Wordpress plugin used on my personal site. I use this plugin on each post. This is one I used for a post called How to Leave A Review (which I'll mention again below).

On my personal site, in each post, I use the following:

A focus keyword.

For ex, a phrase that includes the genre, book or character name, or a descriptive phrase. On one of my posts, titled "How to Leave a Review" I used "leave a review" and repeated it in the title, url, H2 heading, and the body. By the time I'd finished it was there 13 times total. Anyone searching for info on how to leave one, when to leave one, where to leave one, etc. would be likely to find it.

Slug

This is generally the same as above. The slug is what the words at the end of the url are called. Mine was leave-a-review (after the kayelleallen.com/ ) Making it the same as the focus word strengthens the SEO.

Meta Title / Meta Description

I use Wordpress, and have a plugin called Yoast SEO that allows me to choose the meta title and description. I don't have that on Blogger. When you Google something, you know the words in bold that come up and show you a title? That's the meta title. The words beneath it are the meta description. If you can't specify, then Google (and other search engines) pick up the post title and about 150 characters of the first paragraph.

Title and hashtags

I try to match the focus keyword and then research the best hashtags on https://ritetag.com/

H2 Header

Match your focus keyword somewhere on the page in an H2 heading.

Video

Because it owns YouTube, Google loves videos from there. Use the focus word in the description and/or header of that.

Call to action

Generally, I plan my call to action first, and then write the post to showcase that. I want people to leave a review of my book, so I pulled it in as examples in the entire post about how to leave a review. Then I asked if they had left one no matter who's or where, to share the link. It got a ton of views, but no comments. Typically, I get far more views than comments, so it wasn't a surprise.

Image alt tags

On my personal site, I highlight the title of the post and paste that into the alt tag line of each image in the post.

Featured Image

In Blogger, you usually see the first image when you post a url on Facebook or Twitter. With Wordpress, you can pick the exact image you want, even if it isn't in your actual post. When the meta title and description go up on Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc., that is theimage that goes with it.

Other minor things to watch:

Use one category only. This is like the folder in the filing cabinet. It can only go in one at a time. Exception: On RLFblog, I use two categories when the author does an interview. One for the type of interview, and one for the type of book. This lets readers search for both.

Use keywords that are genre specific, book specific, topic oriented. Don't change wording and spelling on these. Keep them simple so readers can easily click the tag and find everything in the topic. For ex, don't use the word book plus the word books. One or the other.

That's pretty much what I do. It's working very well.

If you use Wordpress, get the Yoast SEO for Wordpress plugin. It will teach you these very things. If you do them, your article is going to be much more findable by search engines. Use the checklist, and write good content that contains information people want to find. It's that simple.

About Kayelle Allen

Kayelle Allen is the founder of Marketing for Romance Writers. She writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She's a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
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Thanks Kayelle for letting me share this with my readers.

Tina

#AuthorTips - Taming the Time Eating Monster

Make Quick Decisions
This may sound elementary but a quick decision can save time and money.

For example that stack of mail that you just brought in. What is the best way to handle it?



Let’s look at some options:

• My option, which I must admit is the wrong one, is to lay it on the table and deal with it later.
• Get rid of the Garage - throwing away the ads* and junk mail, set the letters aside to open later. (This may sound simple but if you can make a quick decision on the things you don’t need that less you’ll have to deal with later.)




* Point here is if you do look through ads, only pick the ones where you will shop, or only keep the ones that you will have time to visit this week.



• Open everything and sort by need – bills, things to be shredded, letter that need action.



The bills get sorted by their due date and put in a place where I can write out the checks and send in. (A quick five-minute task)




A box next to the shredder will get the shredding stuff to let the kids do or if (I have a few minutes)




Letters that need attention, will be set up in another area for when, you got it (I have five-minutes)




• Do everything at once.

As you can see there are many ways to break a task down into small bites. The main point is to make a quick decision on what you need and what you don’t. If the out come is not important – a quick decision can save time and teach you how to make a decision without regrets.
Don’t get drug down by the undercurrents of life’s tides.
Ride the waves and enjoy life.

Tina

Getting Married

But how do you do that on a budget?

Many moons ago, I had a very simple wedding.

We held the wedding in my aunt's backyard and bought the wedding cake at corner grocery store.

Now days, I'm not sure as many people would op for this option.

But there are still ways to cut cost.

First - decide how many people, you really need to invite.
This can make a big different on what you can afford to do -- just cake or a formal dinner.

Second - decide how much money you want to spend and keep to the budget.

Third - decide how much you want to do to make your wedding the day you wanted it to be.
Example - can you do the flower arranges, create party favors and print out the invitations on your computer.

Four - where are you willing to cut back on cost and where you won't. Example - the wedding dress-- Are you will to borrow one?  Or does it have to come from your favorite designer?

Five - What type of reception do you want?
Cake and punch or a five course meal.

There are a number of things to think about. Plan it out and you can have the wedding you always wanted. Even if you decide to elope to Vegas.

Tina

Rules of the Game in Battling the Time Monster

Some of us let circumstances rule our time. Take the kids to school, go by the dry cleaners, helping others do their work, or just answering the phone. These little things can eat up a lot of time and make it hard for you to get anything done.

But before we tackle these things lets get down the rules.

1. What is really important – you know the non-negotiable items that can't be put off or delayed. Such as family, health, education, career, spirituality. How do you rank these things?
2. Then come up with negotiable. The kids in soccer, baseball, football, the volunteer time at church, the group of friends that get together once a week to gab.

Once you know what things you are willing to change and those things that can’t. Then you can start carving out time to do the things you want to do.
Small bits of time like:

1. Watching commercial – most mother’s use these breaks to cook, clean, or do small chores around the house.
2. Daydreaming – now this one is important if you’re using this time to say plot out a scene, or decide on which direction you want the story to go. It can be very valuable for deciding what you want to do next.
3. Waiting for appointments – this can be use to catch up on articles that you need to read or work through the mail or write bills.
4. Riding in the car – this can be use to find out what the kids are doing, setting in your mind what has to be done, and what can wait.

It may sound like you’ve got to stay busy every second of the day. But no one can do that, just determine how much down time you need and work that into the schedule too.

For example if you can’t sit for a long time without getting bored or restless. Set up your breaks so that you go to bathroom, get a drink, eat, delivery items to other people, any thing that still gets a task done, but gives you a break too.

But I’m tired of thinking I want to rest!

Find the items that don’t require a lot of thought and spread them throughout your day to give yourself a break. If you don’t have any, give yourself a time-out. Two minutes to think about nothing. Set a timer and go. Then when it’s over remind yourself that you’ve had a break and you’re ready to face that next hurdle. (Important: the time-out has to be without interruption or you’re not going to feel like you got a break.)

Ride the wave or swim against the current. Both can be fun.

Managing the Time Monster

Lesson One - Scheduling your lifeThe one thing that I think we all struggle with is time. It is the great equalizer. Everyone only gets 24 hours in a day. I don't care how rich you are, or how smart you are. We all have the same limited number of hours in the day.

Break your projects into bit size pieces.
I read an article that said that most of us are so busy that the most time we can spend doing one task is about five minutes.

Okay, what can you do in five minutes?

• Mop the floor.
• Write a novel, a scene, a sentence, a word. (Not counting the time it takes to boot up you computer.)
• Drive the kids to a baseball game.

I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. Most task take more than five minutes.

The trick is to take a large task and break it up.
"Mop the floor. (this is my personal hell)" – but look at it this way.
What part of the floor needs the most attention? The corner where Johnny didn’t clean up his mess, the spots where dirt has collected, the dust bunnies that are growing in the corner. (Bunnies multiply quickly)

Got five minutes? A wet paper towel can fix these spots. The floor looks nicer and you can wait now, until you can get someone else to do the floor or have more time.
I know this was a simple example but if you can break down your tasks to bite size chunks. They are easier to swallow and you can get more done.

Don’t let the waves pull you under.

Tina